Mobile scanner at Westmorland General Hospital will provide more imaging capacity

A temporary mobile computerised tomography (CT) scanner at Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) will be introduced to support outpatient and routine scans at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT). The scanner will also help the Trust to deliver and support the national faster diagnosis cancer target for patients which is 28 days.

The scanner has been contracted by NHS England to support the Trust during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and will reduce pressure on the Trust’s Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) and Furness General Hospital (FGH) sites. It will provide 12-hour cover, seven days a week and could potentially provide around 24 scans a day depending on complexity and longer appointment times to maintain social distancing in line with the Government’s guidance.

Debbie Crawford, Imaging Services Manager for Radiology, UHMBT, said: “The temporary scanner at WGH will provide a safe and accessible location for our patients and will help to reduce pressure at our two other main hospital sites. “The extra capacity will help us to maintain cancer imaging cross-bay and at the same time preserve and segregate the capacity on our other main sites to image suspected coronavirus patients.

“There are other improvements in radiology planned in the future such as a replacement and a second CT scanner for the RLI, and a new MRI scanner for FGH. These come on top of the £360,000 investment in new radiology equipment at Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe currently underway.”